How eSignature works
An electronic signature isn’t a picture of your name on a PDF — it’s a recorded act, and the mark is only its receipt. This page walks the whole mechanism, from the mark to the sealed file.
Draw — A finger or mouse stroke.
Elena Fischer
Type — A name in a signature face.
Upload — An image you already have.
All three count equally — e-signature law doesn’t grade penmanship. What makes a mark binding is everything recorded around it, below.
What happens to a document when you send it for signature?
It goes through three stages: the sender places the fields, each signer consents and signs in the browser, and the finished PDF is sealed. Every step is written into the audit trail as it happens.
The sender lays out the document
Everything starts with an ordinary PDF. The sender places the fields — signature, date, text — and assigns each one to a recipient, so every signer is asked for exactly what belongs to them and nothing else.
- Fields are anchored to positions in the file itself
- Every field belongs to one named recipient
- Signing order is the sender's choice — one after another, or everyone at once
- The uploaded document is encrypted before it is ever written to disk
Nothing has been promised yet — until it's sent, this is just a draft with boxes on it.
The signer opens a link — that's the whole setup
Each recipient gets a private link by email and the document opens in their browser: no account, no app, any device. Before they can sign anything, they agree to sign electronically — and that consent goes into the record like everything else.
- A private, single-purpose link per signer
- Optional one-time code by email or SMS, proving the right person holds the link
- Consent to sign electronically is recorded before the first field
- The mark itself: drawn, typed, or uploaded
Declining is part of the mechanism too — the refusal and its reason are recorded the same way a signature would be.
The finished file becomes its own proof
The moment the last signature lands, the PDF is digitally sealed over the exact bytes that were signed. From then on the file answers for itself: open it anywhere, and the seal shows intact or broken.
- A digital seal over the exact signed content
- A certificate listing every signer — who, when, and from where
- A hash-chained audit trail behind the file, where each entry locks the one before
- Every party receives the same final copy
Verification needs no special tool — any PDF reader shows whether the seal is intact.
Is an electronic signature legally binding?
For most business documents, yes. The US recognises electronic signatures under ESIGN and UETA, and the EU and UK under eIDAS. What a court asks comes down to four things: intent, consent, association and retention. Some documents, such as wills, still need pen and paper; this is a guide, not legal advice.
Check the law in your country →Intent
The signer acts deliberately — pressing Sign after seeing the document. Nothing is ever applied on their behalf.
Consent
Each signer first agrees to sign electronically, and that agreement is written into the trail.
Association
The signature lives in the sealed file itself, bound to the exact document that was signed.
Retention
Every party receives the final PDF, and completed documents are kept as records.
The evidence it leaves
-
Opened
Elena Fischer
9f2c…41ab -
Consented
Elena Fischer
←9f2cb70e…5d19 -
Signed
Elena Fischer
←b70e3ac8…9f04 -
Sealed
Signibility
←3ac8e51d…c8b2
Each entry locks the one before it, so a quiet edit to history breaks visibly. The full detail — including what the certificate records about each signer — is on the privacy page, and the product’s whole protection story is on the security page. This page is a guide, not legal advice.
What is the difference between an electronic and a digital signature?
An electronic signature is the person agreeing, whether drawn, typed or uploaded. A digital signature is a cryptographic seal on the file that proves it has not changed since it was sealed.
Made by a person
Electronic signature
You read the document, agree, and sign it — drawn, typed, or uploaded. This is the agreement itself, and it's what the law recognizes.
Made by the software
Digital signature
A tamper-evident lock added to the finished PDF. It can't say who agreed to what — it proves the file hasn't been changed since it was sealed.
Every completed document here has both: your signature on it, and the lock around it.
The questions people actually ask
Whether signers need an account, what still needs a pen, and what happens when someone disputes a signature.
[email protected]Do signers need an account or an app?
No. A signer opens the emailed link and signs in the browser, from any device. Accounts are for people who send documents, not people who sign them.
Which documents shouldn't be signed electronically?
A few categories still commonly require pen, paper or a notary — wills, some family-law and court filings — and the list differs by country. For a regulated edge case, check the rule where you are before sending. Check the law in your country →
What if a signer disputes their signature later?
That's what the record is for. The certificate shows when the document was opened, when consent was given, and when and from where each signature was made — and the hash-chained trail shows nobody edited that history. It turns "I never signed this" from a stalemate into a question with evidence.
See the whole mechanism on one document.
Send one free — no card — and open the sealed PDF that comes back. Everything above is on it.